(my son flinging steel wool)
Our 4th of July celebration was the other day. This is when a lot of the American ex-pats gather for a picnic on a lawn, show the flag, sing the National Anthem, and generally enjoy being together. A few years back at our very FIRST of these annual gatherings, we found that it really gave us a huge sense of community, even though it was mostly with the Americans, even our British friends and Canadian friends sometimes attended. One of the traditions is to light and spin steel wool, as a firework. Sometimes we fire off expired safety flares for a nice 'rocket's red glare' effect.
The overall sense of 'these are the people I serve with' fills your heart as it does with any large community event.
Given that the smaller kids like to run towards the burning steel wool, (pictured above), Kendal and I had the idea to provide the younger kids who didn't get to 'fling wool', glow sticks. So we started a tradition years ago of doing this. After everyone has eaten and the kids want to run around, right before the sun sets, we pull out the glow sticks, snap them and put them around the younger children's wrists.
This is an idea we got from my uncle Randy and aunt Rene many years ago, as they did this with their nieces and nephews camping. It brings an extra element of fun to camping... to have a 'glow night'.
This year, we had our stash we had squirreled away from the U.S. and we used it for a youth event. Having written about the youth event, some good friends of ours realized we were short of glow sticks and sent a huge bunch of them our way!
Just the other day we employed them. Suddenly feeling like the uncle and aunt we rarely get to be, we noticed there were a LOT of younger kids. Many more than last year. HOW AWESOME is that? New families had arrived this year. And just like us over 5 years ago, this was their first 'Ukarumpa 4th of July Celebration'.
They were amazed and encouraged. See, when you get here, you've left family and community and are still trying to become part of this community. An event such as this, warms your heart, and confirms that you're not alone.
And when we're able to give the young kids, these glow bracelets, it tells the families that even their little ones are cared for.
That's a huge encouragement to a family who may have a large fear of what moving here may mean to their child's future.
Just to know, that people care.
And so we're encouraged too that some friends cared enough to send us glow sticks, so that we could encourage others in this way.
